AAR AAR Operation Bloody Gulch 19OCT2024

[Korfias.F]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
Name of Combat Mission: Operation Bloody Gulch
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: TS1
Date of Combat Mission: 19OCT2024
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 2330z​

Mission OIC: Second Lieutenant Korfias.F
Mission Controller: Second Lieutenant Korfias.F & Corporal Sokol.Z
Number of Attendees: 67
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action:
Major Mix.C
Major Rollins.R
First Sergeant Webber.R
Second Lieutenant Korfias.F
Second Lieutenant Swanson.B
Sergeant First Class Hermes.S
Sergeant First Class Mueller.H
Staff Sergeant Busch.J
Staff Sergeant Herber.R
Sergeant Bachelder.A
Sergeant Bean.P
Sergeant Berkowski.C
Sergeant LaRoche.P
Sergeant Strole.Z
Sergeant Wisniewski.A
Corporal Ackelson.K
Corporal Etoh.I
Corporal Jinto.H
Corporal Laui.M
Corporal Macpherson.C
Corporal Moreau.M
Corporal Munch.R
Corporal Robertson.S (ELOA)
Corporal Sokol.Z
Specialist Kugo.El
Specialist Aly.M
Specialist Barrett.JH
Specialist Bell.T
Specialist Daver.R
Specialist Donk.B
Specialist Feathers.A
Specialist Fields.M
Specialist Mair.B
Specialist Mason.P
Specialist Mulvany.J
Specialist Narayanaswamy.A
Specialist Owens.W
Specialist Patricks.C
Specialist Patterson.C
Specialist Rousseau.A RET
Specialist Skye.E
Specialist Valente.M
Specialist Von Busch.M
Specialist Wagner.D
Specialist Willis.B
Specialist Winter.A (ELOA)
Specialist Woody.W
Private First Class Cenname.C
Private First Class Dieppe.C
Private First Class Dirt.E
Private First Class Grimshaw.J
Private First Class Hansel.R
Specialist Lewis.P
Private First Class Mogensen.J
Private First Class Plummer.M
Private First Class Titus.W
Private First Class Yee.L
Private Rose.MJ
Private Summer.R
Private Barzon.J
Private Roller.D
Recruit Belmont.E
Recruit Groves.T
Private Reynolds.Z

First Lieutenant Smith.V - Ret
Corporal Reign.A - Ret
Corporal Smith.N- Ret

 

[Bean.P]

Element Callsign:Axis Charlie Squad
Element Leader: Sgt.Bean.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Major. Rollins
Pvt. Barzon
SPC.Feathers
SPC.Patricks
PFC.Titus


Pros:
-The idea was well thought out. Great to see more events and what not.
-Communication in the start was fairly good.
-These guys always do an amazing job I can't complain
-Korfias as always, its fun having you as a commander

Cons:
-I can go down the list of everyone and they all said they did not have fun. This goes back to the rules being explained fairly to both sides.
-More times than not I saw enemies crossing the line into our area. The number of times we did that was far and few.
-Perhaps something to improve is to not allow for ops if you take the mid point.
-Communication toward the end fell apart because it seemed that we ran out of ideas and steam.

Overall:
Thanks for putting this together Sokol and Korf. Having events is something that is always needed here in the Cav. I look forward to more in the future from you guys.

 

[Korfias.F]

Element Callsign: Axis Commander
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Korfias.F
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Korfias.F

Pros:

Cons:

 

[LaRoche.P]

Element Callsign: George Axis Recon Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Laroche.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Specialist Skye.E

Pros:

Cons:

• Canal Crossing and especially Railword Crossing has a clear US advantage.
• AO restrictions break the game.

 

[Moreau.M]

Element Callsign: Baker Allies Airborne Defense
Element Leader: Corporal Moreau.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Specialist Fields.M, Private Summer.R

Pros: - My guys had fun, we were very fluid in the rear defense NW, getting wiped but rebuilt again every time. Defense rocks.

Cons: - I wish i had one more guy available to cover more roles, would have destroyed the halftrack faster

 

[Etoh.I]

Element Callsign: Easy Axis
Element Leader: Corporal Etoh.I
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Laui.M
Private First Class Yee.L

Pros:

• Good movement and comms within squad
• My troopers crushed it as a 3 man Officer, Assault, Machine Gunner unit with great support by fire to hop OP's forward
• Occasional personnel flexing into my small squad when OP was in a beneficial place
• Awesome and lengthy armor retrieval battle took place in the strong point right back to the blue line

Cons:

• When fighting over only a midpoint, defenders only have to defend.
• 3:1 Attack to Defense ratio/rule comes to mind
• Previous Operations have implemented 'debuffs' to defenders to great success (eg. no OP's for defenders)
• This operation (which seemed geared towards multiple point flips) did no such thing
• Resulted in the typical redline stonewall you will see when equal skills and numbers clash (strongpoint terrain contributes)
• Two steps forward one step back type beat. Let's learn from this

 

[Berkowski.C]

Element Callsign: Okay Boomer
Element Leader: Sgt. Berkowski.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Spc.Barret.JH & SPC.Von Busch.M



Pros:

• Excellent infantry support. Tank survived for long stretches because of it.
• Command comms good also. Great call outs on enemy tanks.
• Not having arty was good.

Cons: None. Excellent op. Thank you for making the OP.

 

[Owens.W]

Element Callsign: George Allies Airborne Attack
Element Leader: Specialist Owens.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Private First Class Dieppe.C Private First Class Dirt.E Private First Class Cenname.C

Pros: - My guys had fun and we moved well and I was told I did well as SL for my first time in an OP

Cons: - Command Coms

 

[Swanson.B]

Element Callsign: Allies Airborne North Assault "How" Squad
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Swanson.B
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Private Reynolds.Z, Specialist Mulvany.J, Recruit Groves.T



Pros: Everyone had fun and executed our game plan perfectly. Our combat score was great, everyone accomplished thier role perfectly. Great operation overall, love the point system.

Cons: Should be allowing recon squad in the back line AO to destroy garrisons. This would make things a little more spicy.

 

[Woody.W]

Element Callsign: allied recon
Element Leader: SPC.Woody.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SPC.Bell.T



Pros:
-we had very good zone control
-we won
-good front line
-used allot of flairs good explosive ammo drops

Cons:
-guys crossing out of bounds
-was 34 allIes 30 axis
-hard to snipe on this map
-me calling out flairs cluttered coms

 

[Wisniewski.A]

Element Callsign: Axis How Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Wisniewski.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
First Sergeant Webber.R
Corporal Munch.R
Specialist Patterson.C
Specialist Aly.M
Private First Class Plummer.M

Pros:

• Fun OP overall
• Allies had every angle covered for the second half of the match, great job!
• Squad moved really well as a unit,

Cons:

• Once Allies had pushed past the capture point, they were holding the line so well that it was impossible to gain a foothold
• Several violations of the AO at one point, but that was solved eventually
• Coordination between Axis squads was severely lacking, especially after we had lost all of our footholds. All squads were poking around for holes in the defense, but there was no real plan or effort to coordinate that effort

 

[Narayanaswamy.A]

Element Callsign: Axis Able Squad
Element Leader: SPC.Nara.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SPC.Rousseau.A RET

Pros:

• No artillery was a good rule
• Was able to provide some harassment of flank defenders and taking out destroying garrisons
• With some tweaking, would be an excellent OP

Cons:

• Poor coordination due to lack of planning
• Very difficult to place forward garrisons on the attack due to the restricted AO
  • Allowing an additional column (for at least the recon squads) would allow for more balance on attack
• Taking the point initially ended up being a drawback since there was no time to get set up
  • When the Allies took the point, the spawns were cleared, giving them time to get settled in
  • Was not able to take advantage of destroying garrisons since attacking garrisons would be constantly locked out

 

[Mueller.H]

Element Callsign: Allies Fox Squad
Element Leader: SFC.Mueller.H
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Kugo.E
Corporal Robertson.S

Pros:

• Squad had fun
• Excellent quality in command chat. No unnecessary talk.
• It had the impression that everyone knew what to do. Das ist genau die Scheiße, auf die ich Bock hab! (This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm excited about!)

Cons:

• The defending team had a significant and unfair advantage. When using AO restrictions, any resulting advantages must be properly balanced. By restricting access to column 7 for each side, the defending team was able to continuously reinforce the strongpoint with troops. Without the ability to cut off the main or alternate supply routes—both of which are critical for delivering the primary resource, the troopers—it becomes nearly impossible to capture the point. Ensuring that these supply routes can be contested is essential for maintaining fairness in gameplay.
  Two potential solutions are either banning garrisons in column 5 or allowing the attacking team access to columns 7 and 8. This approach would require the defending team to not only secure the strongpoint but also protect their backup garrisons, adding a strategic layer to the gameplay. Both options would result in more dynamic and engaging matches.
• The maps are often not distributed fairly depending on the team. It might be more fair to flip the map after 40 minutes to create a equal conditions for both teams playing each faction.

 

[Sokol.Z]

Element Callsign: Allied Command
Element Leader: Corporal Sokol.Z
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Sokol.Z

Pros:

• Excellent communication in command comms - very clean, concise, and coordinated
• Crew did a great job at forming a line and holding back waves of enemies
• Spotter was on point with flares, Tank was communicative and excellent infantry support, and folks were on top of garrison replacement.

Cons:

• Purpose of Operation failed to live up to expectations - need to have better conditions regarding "debuffs" to defenders, such as lessening Commander abilities or permitting Attackers to use Artillery.
• Final 15ish minutes got a little stale - need to find better way to tweak scoring to keep things interested and not seem "all lost"
• Discord comms were very active and distracting once we went "Comms Official" - lots of people not respecting the rule for several minutes past 7:30PM EDT

 

[Macpherson.C]

Element Callsign: Allied Squad - Item
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Herber.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Macpherson.C
Private Roller.D
Specialist Wagner.D
Private First Class Grimshaw.J

Pros:

• Squad did absolutely fantastic - Great communication and had a blast playing with the boys as usual.
• Drunk SL.
• The Gametype 'King Of The Hill' is one of my favourite in the larger gaming space and I love to see the attempt here to recreate it.

Cons:

• The match got a little Stale towards the end as it just seemed that Allies were always able to continue with the momentum
• The Gametype itself needs to have some sort of Debuff for situations where defenders are dominating. Whether that be continued AO restrictions, removing the ability to have tanks or providing the attacker with a buff. The game was too far in favour of one side for far too long and can see this being big Con for the future if its not adjusted

 

[Bachelder.A]

Element Callsign: Axis Team - Baker Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Bachelder.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Valente.M
Private Rose.MJ

Pros:

• Always great action fighting other Cav members
• Good comms within squad
• Some coordinated effort in proximity with other squads north of train station point

Cons:

• Concept of king of the hill looks good on paper but needs to have additional limitations set for defending team. A coordinated defense can stymie an attack even when outnumbered
• Looked like Allied side had more soldiers
• Not being able to operate on a larger area severely limits game function. Inability to cross back line essentially made dead ends out streets which could otherwise have been used to flank. This resulted in very few avenues to assault point from the north

 

[Herber.R]

Element Callsign: Allies Squad - Item
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Herber.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Macpherson.C
Private Roller.D
Specialist Wagner.D
Private First Class Grimshaw.J

Pros:

• Squad did amazing working together and utilizing good communication to capture and secure the point.
• Match was enjoyable with an added point system.

Cons:

• The match got a little Stale towards the end as it just seemed that Allies were always able to continue with the momentum
• The Game type itself needs to have some sort of Debuff for situations where defenders are dominating. Whether that be continued AO restrictions, removing the ability to have tanks or providing the attacker with a buff. The game was too far in favour of one side for far too long and can see this being big Con for the future if it's not adjusted